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Water lion
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , |Reported = 1907, 1910, 1938, (retrospectively) or 1939 |Researchers = • Lucien Blancou • Bernard Heuvelmans • Christian Le Noël}} Water lions, water leopards, or jungle walruses are river monsters reported from many countries of Central Africa, almost always described as aquatic tusked animals which kill, but do not eat, hippopotamuses. Cryptozoologists speculate that they may be living sabre-toothed cats, living dinosaurs, or unknown forms of giant reptile.Heuvelmans, Bernard & Rivera, Jean-Luc & Barloy, Jean-Jacques (2007) Les Félins Encore Inconnus d’Afrique''Newton, Michael (2009) ''Hidden Animals: A Field Guide to Batsquatch, Chupacabra, and Other Elusive Creatures''Shuker, Karl (1995) ''In Search of Prehistoric Survivors They may also be confused with Congo dragons and with water elephants. Heuvelmans, Bernard (1978) Les Derniers Dragons d'Afrique Cryptids classified as water lions *Coje ya menia ( ) *Dilali ( ) *Dingonek ( ) *Mamaïmé ( ) *Mourou-ngou ( , ) *Ndzin médzim ( ) *Ngoroli ( ) *Ntambo wa luy ( ) *Ntambue ya maï ( ) *Nzefu-loï ( ) *Simba ya mail ( ) *Ze-ti-ngu According to Alain Grobon, the Yulu people of the Central African Republic know of a "water lion" which they describe as a giant caracal with immense canines. J. E. Hughes heard stories of an enormous "water leopard" or "marsh leopard" of Lake Bangweulu, Northern Rhodesia ( ). It was said to have black fur and a short tail (a characteristic of water lions), and to prey on antelopes such as the lechwe and the situtunga. Hughes interviewed a native man who claimed that one had attacked and wounded his children, then fled. Hans Schomburgk was also told about a "water leopard" inhabiting Zambia's Lukanga Swamp. When big game hunter John Hunter was in the 's Ituri Rainforest in the 1930's, he showed the local pygmies a copy of Rowland Ward Records of Big Game to see what kinds of animals lived in the forest. When he reached the Arctic section, one of the pygmy hunters put his finger on the picture of a walrus and said "Ah, I know that animal well. He lives in the deepest parts of the forest and comes out only at night. He is very fierce and kills men with those great tusks of his in order to eat them, but if you wish, I'll trap one for you.".Hunter, John (1952) Hunter Hunter rejected the offer in disbelief. Big game hunter J. M. Cointre heard of a possible West African water lion from the Phalémé River, near the Niokola-Koba region around the border of , , and . According to local farmers, cattle in the area were often killed by enormous lions which came out of the river during the night, leaving tracks much larger than those of real lions. Heuvelmans notes that a massive amount of unknown Central African animals, including mammals, have been lumped together into reports of living dinosaurs. Some of the traditionally saurian cryptids which he identifies as possible mammalian water lions include the n'yamala, the chipekwe, and lake elephants. Description Native descriptions of water lions tend to vary somewhat in details, but the general description is usually consistent, and it is possible to build up a profile of the animal based on these consistent pieces of information. They are generally described as feline in shape, with heads like leopards and a pair of long, curved, heavy teeth which are sometimes described as ivory. Their reported length can vary wildly. The largest water lion is the ntambo wa luy, which is said to be 26' long and 4' high. However, most water lions are usually given more modest sizes: generally they are said to be between the size of a large dog and a lion, and sometimes up to the size of a horse. They are said to have brown to light red fur, which is usually described as being marked with longitudinal stripes or spots, either darker or lighter than the coat, although some eyewitnesses describe it as unmarked (Heuvelmans speculates that these sightings could be explained by misidentified otters). Occasionally they are described as maned, and are often said to have short, hairy tails like those of cows or horses. As implied by their names ("water lion," "water leopard," "water panther," "water elephant,") water lions are always described as aquatic animals, and are usually said to dwell specifically in running water such as rivers, sometimes swamps or lagoons: according to some sources, they make their homes in caves or hollows in the riverbank, where the entraces to their dens will be partially flooded. They are sometimes reputed to be nocturnal, and are almost always said to be extremely dangerous and aggressive animals, often man-eaters, and are notorious across Central Africa for their habit of killing hippopotamuses, but not feeding on them. Some sources claim that the mourou-ngou hunts in pairs. Many water lions are said to feed on fish, and the dilali of the is additionally said to feed on fish and leaves. Christian Le Noël writes that "their eyes shine in the night like carbuncles, and their growl resembles the sound of the wind just before a thunderstorm or a tornado". Water lions have been reported from: * : Upper Cuango and Cuanza Rivers. * : Bamingui, Bangoran, Gribingui, Iomba, Kotto, Koukourou, Mbari, Ouaka, and Vovodo Rivers. * : Chari and Ouham Rivers. * : Aruwimi, Ituri, and Lualaba Rivers. * : Kikira, Mara, and Migori Rivers. * , , or : Phalémé River Physical evidence Teeth Christian Le Noël suggested that a pair of unusually-textured "elephant tusks" found in a batch of Kenyan ivory could be the canine teeth of a water lion. Artifacts A Bushman cave painting (1) at Brakfontein Ridge, Free State Province, , depicts a long-tusked animal very similar to a water lion. No water lion has been reported from South Africa, but Bernard Heuvelmans suggests that they could have inhabited the region in the past, before their range shrunk back to the tropics. The animal in the painting has the characteristic longitudinal spots reported from water lions including the dingonek and the mourou-ngou, and the short tail characteristic of sabre-toothed cats. Its legs seem rather short for a cat: Heuvelmans suggests that the animal is depicted lying on its stomach with its legs under its belly. Some have suggested that the painting actually represents a walrus, but Heuvelmans found it difficult to believe that the ancient people of South Africa could have any knowledge of this Arctic animal. According to Karl Shuker, there are other ancient paintings of the animal, which has been termed a "jungle walrus", in South Africa.Shuker, Karl ShukerNature: THE CURIOUS CASE OF ROTHSCHILD'S LOST TUSK AND THE NON-EXISTENT ELEPHANT PIG - AN ENDURING CRYPTOZOOLOGICAL CONUNDRUM FROM AFRICA karlshuker.blogspot.com 10 May 2019 There are no extant depictions of a water lion from Central Africa: Heuvelmans points out that most tribes of Central Africa mainly produce artwork of human beings, not animals. Explorer Hans Schomburgk brought a sculpture of the n "water leopard" to Germany,Schomburgk, Hans (1957) Zelte in Afrika but it was eventually sent back to Zambia, apparently without even being photographed.Shuker, Karl ShukerNature: SOLVING THE MYSTERY OF SCHOMBURGK'S MISSING MICRO-SQUIRRELS - AND REVISITING TANZANIA'S FLYING JACKAL karlshuker.blogspot.com 10 May 2019 Wounded animals In 1920, a hippopotamus was found badly slashed by an unknown animal along the Chari River in Chad by hunter Marcel Halley. He shot and photographed the animal. In 1970, Christian Le Noël was asked to shoot a hippopotamus on the Chari River which had become aggressive towards canoes. After shooting it, he: Sightings Undated C. W. Hobley reported that, sometime before 1911, a Kikuyu elder sent two men to retrieve the tail hairs of an ndamathia which was basking by the Kikira River. The men are supposed to have got it intoxicated with beer, then plucked the hairs and fled. Monseigneur Van Horne, bishop of Rafai in the Central African Republic, questioned the inhabitants of the Zandé country about the mamaimé, and learned that a man had recently been killed by one. Another man had been attacked, but survived.Institut Virtuel de Cryptozoologie Les félins à dents en sabre de l'Afrique cryptozoo.pagesperso-orange.fr 10 May 2019 1907 :Main article: Dingonek#1907 John Alfred Jordan was notorious English ivory poacher operating in southern British East Africa (now ), along the border with German East Africa (now ). He claimed that in 1907, whilst on a march towards the Migori River, he was led by his men to a dingonek in the river. He fired at it, apparently hitting it behind the ear, but it leaped at him and he fled. When he returned to the river, it was gone. The first person to hear and recount this story was the American hunter Edgar Beecher Bronson, whose camp at Engabai was visited by Jordan on 31 January 1909. Stuck in their tent on one stormy night, they got to discussing how many large animals remained to be discovered in Africa, and, after talking about the okapi, Jordan told his story to Bronson:Bronson, Edgar Beecher (1910) Closed Territory Bronson was sceptical, so Jordan asked him to interview his hunting party about the incident, and, through an interpreter, they all gave more-or-less identical descriptions. Jordan himself also mentioned the encounter in a newspaper interview and a ghostwritten book: the details of the story were basically the same, but the date of the sighting and the size of the dingonek were slightly different. When Bronson published Jordan's story, it was widely regarded as a traveller's tale, but C. W. Hobley met a second eyewitness who claimed to have had an encounter with a very similar animal, at around the same time, on the Mara River near the border with German East Africa. According to Hobley: 1911 Lucien Blancou was told by an old man named Moussa that in the rainy season of 1911, probably in August, a boat containing several French tirailleurs was overturned in the Bamingui River by a mourou-ngou, which seized one of the men in its mouth and dragged him underwater: .]] The man Moussa said that he had seen the animal's tracks himself, on the riverbank, and that they were larger than those of a lion. Blancou investigated the records office at Ndélé, and discovered evidence that a rifleman had been lost at around this time. The confluence of the Bamingui and Koukourou Rivers can be found near 7°32'13.6"N 19°43'37.6"E on the map. 1928 E. B. H. Goodall and F. B. Macrae were given an account of an animal referred to as chipekwe by a Chiwemba-speaking man who claimed to have seen the animal several times in the low marshes around around Lake Bangweulu, including one incident from 1928 in which he saw two or three of them. He described the animal as a little larger than a hippopotamus, with shaggy hair, paddles rather than feet, and two large downward-pointing fangs. He also reported that the animals were known to kill hippopotamuses.Macrae, F. B. "More African Mysteries," National Review 111 (December 1938) circa 1930's In the 1930's, a Portuguese lorry-driver told von Nolde of a near-encounter he'd had with a coje ya menia. He said that one day, on the Cuango at a latitude of about nine degrees south, he heard that a coje ya menia had chased and killed a hippopotamus the night before. He investigated with some native hunters, and was able to find the spoor of both animals, which the men followed across the savannah for several hours. The trail consisted of the tracks of a hippopotamus which seemed to be in a hurry, and those of a smaller animal, somewhat resembling those of an elephant, but with "the mark of toes beneath the sole of the foot". Eventually the men reached an area of broken-down grass and shrubs, in the middle of which was a dead but uneaten hippopotamus, "hacked and ripped as if with a huge bush-knife". 1930 On 26 May 1930, French civil servant Lucien Blancou shot a hippopotamus on the River Mbari. During the night, a roaring animal that was not a Nile crocodile bit into the carcass: 1936 In 1936, Lucien Blancou was told that a mourou-ngou had carried off some men from the village of Dogolomandji on the Gribingui River in the Central African Republic. The villagers, who moved away following the incident, had not seen the animal and so could not describe it, but they knew it was not a crocodile because it left no trace of its victims. circa 1950's In the 1950s, a water lion was allegedly caught in a fishing net on the Bangoran River. The villagers killed it and retained its skull, which may still be kept by the village headman. When Christian Le Noël interviewed the headman, he was told that the story was not true, and was not allowed to see the skull despite offering a large sum of money.Le Noël, Christian Institut Virtuel de Cryptozoologie LE TIGRE DES MONTAGNES : DES FELINS A DENTS EN SABRE AU COEUR DE L'AFRIQUE? cryptozoo.pagesperso-orange.fr 10 May 2019 circa 1962 or 1963 A diamond prospector named Denis claimed to have encountered a mourou-ngou in 1962 or 1963. He only saw the animals head and shoulders emerge from the water; its head was moving from side to side, as if it were searching for something.Joye, Eric Opération Mourou ngou Cryptozoologia.eu cryptozoologia.eu 10 May 2019 1985 In February 1985, a guide named Marcel, fishing on the Bamingui River, claimed to have been almost knocked into the water when a mourou-ngou approached him from behind and jumped into the river. He had not noticed its presence until it made a sound. Theories :See also: Dingonek#Theories, Coje ya menia#Theories, and Mourou-ngou#Theories Mistaken identity , but its size and lack of large canines rules it out as a suspect for most sightings.]] Given the distinctive habits and appearance of water lions, there are few animals in Central Africa with which they could be mistakenly identified. The giant otter shrew (Potamogale velox) is also called mourou-ngou or "water leopard" by the Banda people, but its habits, size, and appearance are all inconsistent with the "true", water lion, mourou-ngou. Bernard Heuvelmans suggests that water lions could sometimes be confused with African clawless otters (Aonyx capensis), giving rise to claims which conflict with other sources, such as water lions with patternless coats. African lions (Panthera leo), which are distinguished by name from water lions by many tribes, are ruled out as a possible identity by Bernard Heuvelmans for a number of reasons besides their appearance, chiefly because they will not often enter deep water. Also, although lions will sometimes prey on young hippopotamuses, they will almost never attack the big adults. Additionally, some regions from which water lions are reported, such as the enclosed marshes of the , are not known to be home to lions, and Christian Le Noël can imagine no circumstances under which lions could or would migrate to a swampy region. During Operation Mourou N'gou, Eric Joye heard of a strange cat skin in the possession of a native hunter from Mbrès, which turned out to be a small skin belonging to the African golden cat (Caracal aurata). As this species is not usually found in the northern , Joye speculated that the mourou-ngou could in fact be an African golden cat found north of its usual range. Although much smaller than big cats, they are known to sometimes have aquatic habits, and some individuals may have heavily spotted flanks. Joye also writes that, because of its rarity, even local people have little knowledge of these cats. However, he also notes that, though it could explain some sightings, it is simply too small to be the animal encounterd by most eyewitnesses. Incidentally, Bernard Heuvelmans theorised that the mngwa could be a giant species of African golden cat. There are a number of suggestions that the animal responsible for inflicting savage wounds on hippopotamuses is not the water lion that the attacks are so often blamed on. The idea that the wounds could have been caused by other hippopotamuses, which of course have large and powerful canines, was for a time rejected on account of the fact that only male hippopotamuses battle each other, yet many of the mysteriously injured animals are females or juveniles. However, in A Game Warden Takes Stock (1942), game warden Charles Pitman writes that, during the breeding season, he observed female hippopotamuses engaged in ferocious fighting alongside the males, making the theory more plausible. However, Pitman's description of the fighting itself convinced Bernard Heuvelmans that, at least in the case of Halley's hippopotamus, this could not be the cause of the wounds. According to Pitman, the fightsThese land battles are much more serious than the intimidation displays which take place in the water (as seen to the left), which usually start over territory and end with one animal submitting. take place on land and can last for hours, and are so violent that even the victor will often end up succumbing soon afterwards. The animals will usually charge at one another, throw their heads back, and lacerate each other's sides until one of them dies of blood loss; sometimes, a lucky stab to the heart will cause near-instant death for one combatant.Pitman, Charles (1942) A Game Warden Takes Stock According to Heuvelmans, a battle such as this could possibly explain the shoulder injury and longitudinal slashes on Halley's hippopotamus, but not the deep, hollow hole in its chest, nor the innumerable slashes covering its back. Heuvelmans believed that the wounds suggested the animal had been attacked by more than one of the mystery assailants at the same time: they leapt on its back, slashed and stabbed it, then tried to kill it with a bite to the throat/chest/shoulder area when it tipped onto its side. However, a number of cryptozoologists do maintain that the wounds could be caused by other hippopotamuses. Michel Raynal also suggested that some of the injured hippopotamuses could have been attacked by elephants, which could inflict severe goring wounds with their tusks. Aggressive young male elephants are known to sometimes kill black and white rhinoceroses, so Raynal notes that they could easily do the same to hippopotamuses. Heuvelmans argued against this on account of the fact that elephants and hippopotamuses generally live in peace together, as they do not compete for food or habitats, but this does not mean that a more aggressive bull male would never attack. Halley and Heuvelmans both discounted crocodiles because of their distinctive jaw shapes: elongated in the case of the Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus), and shorter and rounded in the dwarf crocodile (Osteolaemus tetraspis). Lucient Blancou thought the carcass of the hippopotamus he shot could have been bitten by crocodiles, but his men knew these animals well, and they identified the scavenger as a water lion. Halley considered the possibility that the wounds on his hippopotamus were inflicted by bull sharks (Carcharhinus leucas), which are known to venture into freshwater, but rejected this because he failed to discover any authentic cases of aggression by these sharks in Africa. Additionally, Heuvelmans notes that a shark would not have simply left lacerations on its prey's back and forequarters: it would have attacked the soft belly, and ripped off great chunks of flesh. Yet Halley's hippopotamus was intact, just slashed and gored. Sabre-toothed cat Giant otter Unknown monitor lizard or crocodile Living dinosaur Martin Wilfarth suggested in 1949 that early accounts of water lions could be explained by semi-aquatic living ceratopsian dinosaurs, with the supposed fangs explained as horns.Wilfarth, Martin "Leben heute noch Saurier?," Prisma (October 1949) George Eberhart, however, notes that they often also had frills or flanges around their heads, although he does concede that some confusion may occur between water lions and more traditionally ceratopsian-like cryptids like the emela-ntouka, which is said to kill elephants, buffalo, and hippopotamuses. Ceratopsians are not known to have lived in Africa: writing on the emela-ntouka, Roy P. Mackal noted that this would not ordinarily be much of a problem, given the haphazard distrubution of fossils and the lack of palaeontological work in Africa. However, the Tendaguru fossil beds in East Africa have yielded many fossils of several diverse dinosaur families, including stegosaurs, but no ceratopsians. Still, Mackal writes that it may be that some were present in the jungles of Central Africa, were few excavations take place, and that they survived in the "unchanging climate of equatorial Africa" whilst their cousins in North America perished.Mackal, Roy P. (1987) A Living Dinosaur?: In Search of Mokele-Mbembe Water elephant could explain some water lions, and could be confused with others.]] Chalicothere Although most of the water lions are described as predators, the 's lion, the dilali, is said to feed mainly on leaves, as well as on fish. On this basis, and because of its description of having the body of a horse and the claws of a lion, Heuvelmans briefly mused the possibility that the dilali, among other Central African amphibious cryptids, could be a living chalicothere. However, he concluded that the likeness is only partial, and pointed out that there is no evidence of chalicotheres being aquatic. Captain William Hichens also suggested that the chipekwe could be an aquatic chalicothere. Similar cryptids The northern range of the water lions overlaps with the southern range of the tigre de montagne, which is also speculated to be living sabre-toothed cats. They have often been described as the same cryptid, but would have radically different lifestyles and ecologies. Other possible living sabre-toothed cats include the amphibious water tigers and mountain-dwelling fanged cats of South America - an apparent case of convergent evolution with the African water lions and tigres de montagne - and the guoshanhuang of . Further cryptozoological reading *Heuvelmans, Bernard (1978) Les Derniers Dragons d'Afrique *Heuvelmans, Bernard & Rivera, Jean-Luc & Barloy, Jean-Jacques (2007) Les Félins Encore Inconnus d’Afrique Notes and references Do you think the exists? If so, what do you think the is? Myth, folklore, hoax, or otherwise made-up Mistaken identity Unknown monitor lizard Unknown crocodilian Unknown cat Living sabre-toothed cat Living dinosaur Pygmy elephant Category:Cryptids Category:Africa Category:Angola Category:Central African Republic Category:Chad Category:Côte d'Ivoire Category:Democratic Republic of the Congo Category:Gabon Category:Guinea Category:Kenya Category:Mali Category:Republic of the Congo Category:Senegal Category:South Sudan Category:Uganda Category:Zambia Category:Water lions Category:Felids Category:River monsters Category:Swamp monsters Category:River & lake monsters of the Congo system Category:River & lake monsters of the Nile system Category:River & lake monsters of the Zambezi system Category:Theory: New otter species Category:Theory: New crocodilian species Category:Theory: New proboscidean species Category:Theory: Living fossil - Sabre toothed cat Category:Theory: Lazarus taxon - Dinosaur Category:Theory: Lazarus taxon - Deinothere Category:No recent sightings Category:Featured Category:Cameroon